Incarnation vs Reincarnation
Incarnation and reincarnation are spiritual and religious concepts. Most people mistake that incarnation and reincarnation has the same meaning. Religious people, especially those that believe in these spiritual concepts, believe that there are significant differences between incarnation and reincarnation.
First of all, the concept of incarnation are normally attributed to deities or higher spiritual being descending on a lesser physical being such as the human form. For Christians, this concept can is illustrated by the belief that the sprit of God incarnated into a human form which is Jesus Christ. So there is a higher deeply religious overtone when one is speaking about incarnation.
On the other hand, reincarnation has a less deific meaning. For most spiritualists, reincarnation is the repeated process of incarnation of lesser souls from the spiritual state to physical state. Some religions believe that the body is just a shell or a vehicle of the soul. The body can be destroyed but the soul will remain. So this soul will continue to reincarnate into other physical beings in an endless process of incarnation.
Another big difference between incarnation and reincarnation lies in the question about how these two spiritual processes end. For the spiritualists, incarnation is part of the universe. It is an unending phenomenon as long as there are physical beings living on earth. That is because ‘new’ souls are created continuously by the higher being. These ‘new’ souls therefore will find a physical state to complete the process of incarnation.
On the other hand, the cycle of reincarnation ends when the ‘old’ soul achieves a completion of purpose. This means that the ‘old’ has attained the highest state of physical state and it is now ready to go the ultimate place where souls reside.
Incarnation and reincarnation are different concepts. The former refers to a higher spiritual state descending or transforming itself to a lower physical state. The latter refers to the repeated process of incarnation of old souls until they are ready to take their place in heaven.